Measure all other existences, manifest and hidden, by this; for if the support (madad) of any of them is withheld from the souls, those souls die, just as if the support of any manifest existence were withheld from this world and its people, they would die.

From His kindness toward us, He addressed us with the names of these worldly things so we might use them to infer the Persons, manifestations, and inward cognitions, and to make them a veil over the Divine Secrets which must not be revealed to the disbelievers.

What confirms that the intended meaning of this manifest water is the inward knowledge through which eternal life is attained is the saying of the Exalted in Surah Al-A'raf: {And the companions of the Fire will call to the companions of Paradise, "Pour upon us some water or from what Allah has provided you." They will say, "Indeed, Allah has forbidden them both to the disbelievers. Those who took their religion as distraction and amusement and whom the worldly life deluded. So today We will forget them as they forgot the meeting of this Day of theirs and for having rejected Our verses. And We had certainly brought them a Book which We detailed by knowledge—as guidance and mercy for a people who believe.